National Biologics Manufacturing Centre

Construction of the £38m National Biologics Manufacturing Centre (NBMC) at Central Park in Darlington began in April 2014. With a total floorspace of 5,000m2 the centre will be equipped with flexible laboratory and pilot plant areas to help companies of all sizes in the biologics market to produce, demonstrate, prototype and scale up the next generation of biologics products.

The NBMC is a flagship scheme that forms part of the Technology Strategy Board's Catapult Programme. 'Catapult' is the name for a network of new technology and innovation centres, designed to transform research rapidly into commercial success. Funded by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS), the facility (which will be managed by CPI) will be used for conducting research on biologics products by promoting collaboration between academia, the National Health Service and the private sector and will be open by late 2015.

CPI provides assets and resources to support innovations in the manufacture of biologics. Utilising state of the art facilities and technical expertise, we help our clients to de-risk process development through proof of concept testing to accelerate the commercialisation of new products and process technologies.

Collaboration with CPI will enable the biopharmaceutical industry to capitalise on its strong research and development pipeline and make more therapies available for unmet clinical needs. We support the commercialisation of research by promoting collaboration with industry across the supply chain from research through to manufacture and clinic.

Due to open late 2015, the £38m centre has been established to support the growth of the UK's biologics industry with open access facilities to support the development and commercialisation of biologic products and process technologies.

The centre has been designed to handle mammalian, microbial and next generation biologic platforms (with the ability to scale up from millilitres to 200 litres) and demonstrate innovative new process technologies. The centre will also have an extensive analytical suite and high throughput development capabilities, so clients can fully characterise their product and optimise their process.

The Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) who funded the project sanctioned a group of independent industry advisors to choose the location for the Centre. The group chose Darlington based on accessibility in the form of excellent transport links, particularly the East Coast Mainline, close proximity to existing pharmaceutical companies and relevant universities in the north of England in addition to growth opportunities within the Tees Valley Enterprise Zone.

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